Mr. Secretary-General,

I agree with what you said and would like to thank President Karzai for his informative briefings.

The past year has seen great changes in Afghanistan. Thanks to the leadership of President Karzai, war-torn Afghanistan has embarked on the road to peace. However, the present security situation in Afghanistan is still deeply worrying. Recent cases of terrorist bombing and assassination are further indicative of the weak foundation of peace there, which calls for great attention from the international community.

Peace and stability go hand in hand with economic development. Afghanistan has just emerged from war and turbulence. Rehabilitation provides key guarantee for the Afghan peace process and will also bring peaceful life to the Afghan people and promote ethnic unity and harmony. Rehabilitation in Afghanistan depends on the financial, material and human resources support from the international community. The past year has witnessed one-after-another generous aiding pledges from many countries. What is crucial for the sound progress of rehabilitation is to deliver on these pledges as soon as possible so that assistance will be put in place and play its role at the earliest possible time.

The United Nations needs to play a bigger role in the Afghan rehabilitation. It should give play to the comparative advantage of various organs, help Afghanistan map out the rehabilitation in context of its national conditions, and provide necessary assistance and support to this end. As the assistance work remains complicated and under-coordinated at the moment, it is imperative for the relevant organs of the UN to strengthen coordination so that all participants can complement each other. This will better serve the rehabilitation work.

Mr. Secretary-General,

As a friendly neighbour of Afghanistan, China has always committed itself to the peace process and rehabilitation there. We have pledged Afghanistan 150 million USD of rehabilitation aid within five years and concluded a subsidiary free aid agreement on economic and technical co-operation at the worth of 30 million USD. China's emergency material aid valued at 30 million RMB had reached Kabul in full by March this year.

We support the efforts made by the UN, particularly those by Special Representative Mr. Brahimi and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. We will continue to work with the rest of the international community to support the peace process and rehabilitation in Afghanistan.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary-General.